Once upon a time, MM6 Maison Margiela was the humble diffusion line of an impossibly potent Maison Margiela, its output limited to small ready-to-wear collections. But, as we approach its 30th anniversary, MM6 is arguably doing Margiela better than the maison's mainline imprint.
That's not a diss, by the way, but it is true. At its best, MM6's wildly wearable clothes hew more true to Martin Margiela's own design language than, really, anyone else currently working.
No one else is tinkering with Margiela's codes and, really, the artifice of fashion in a comparably approachable format. MM6 is the ultimate in Margiela made fresh.
Parse the details from MM6's Spring/Summer 2024 show to get a clear picture of the many throughlines that connect today's MM6 and yesterday's Margiela.
There were printed aprons in homage to one of Martin's preferred readymade layering pieces, skin-tight cardigans that updated a classic Margiela Replica, and belts sewn into boxy tunics, encouraging the wearer to reshape their torso as they like.
The latter calls back to both Martin's tenures at his eponymous label and Hermès, where sumptuous clothes often superseded the human form and concessions were made to allow for adjustable fits.
MM6 doesn't sole dabble in direct allusion, though. MM6's SS24 hero T-shirt is printed with an image of the show's invitation, a bit of fashion metacommentary in the vein of Margiela's inimitable Stockman top.
Clearly, MM6's design team is aware of the man whose name is on the label, though its purpose was never in question.
MM6 was launched in 1997 as an affordable, approachable, and firmly contemporary counterpart to Martin Margiela's boundary-exploding mainline collection.
It quietly existed for decades until it began hosting regular runway shows in 2013, when it modestly applied the Margiela attitude to staples like puffers (printed with trompe l'oeil fur) and peacoats (blown up into double-breasted capes.
MM6 stayed the course until 2020, or so, when a glimmer of something new began to sparkle.
The year began with MM6's deliciously inventive The North Face collaboration that transformed puffer jackets into spheres, earning the sub-label a sudden explosion of attention. And why not? It was a great collab, a great idea, with great pieces to boot. This was likely most young people's first brush with the line.
MM6 then correctly used this momentum to debut a seasonal lookbook that directly borrowed the layout of classic Margiela on-model imagery.
Far from MM6's first brush with the Margiela archive, this was perhaps the clearest possible callout of its mission statement: we exist in the shadow of Margiela and we love it.
Just tuning in now? Here's what to expect.
MM6's contemporary ethos was solidified by Fall 2022, its first offering with dedicated menswear.
No longer restricted to limited womenswear offerings, MM6 was now a co-ed brand and, oh yeah, it made Salomon sneakers, too.
Recent collections borrow classic cues like jackets with sliced-off sleeves and shredded denim, updating them for a contemporary palette with sumptuously widened silhouettes.
MM6 branding is ample but not aggro. The clothes are contemporary but classic. A study in casual contradiction in the vein of Margiela's glory days.
That's because MM6's cropped trench coats and tricky jeans-as-skirts are deferential to the original vision of Martin Margiela.
Never has the label's unwavering raison dêtre been clearerthan these recent collections that concisely distil that age-old against-the-grain attitude into a wearable collection of semi-streetwear.
But while MM6 looks to the past, Maison Margiela creative director John Galliano looks to the future. His Margiela is intentionally not Martin's Margiela, though it is respectful of the ideas put forth by Galliano's forebear.
As Galliano himself recounted in the early days of his time at Margiela, reclusive founder Martin Margiela once told Galliano to “take what you will from the DNA of the house, protect yourself, and then make it your own.”
And that's exactly what Galliano has done.
Though the ghost of Margiela's scientific theory haunted the coutourier's most recent Artisanal collection, for instance, it was also so good, so gloriously Galliano that its ingenious makeup and painstakingly handcrafted Victorian clothing that it became perhaps the biggest couture show in years. That a theatrical Margiela couture collection swept social media so completely solely comes down to Galliano's credit.
Galliano's Margiela is extremely modern and it is also the future of the house that Martin built. Its collaborations with Gentle Monster and collectible handbags represent the savvy consumerist bent that grounds its high-flying artistic experiments.
MM6, meanwhile, is like if an extremely ardent Margiela devotee set about retooling the house's legacy for Gen-Z. And that's a compliment.
That's the thing, really: whereas Galliano's Maison Margiela exists in the here and now, MM6 lives in the now and then. While Galliano makes the maison his own, MM6 thrives in the shadow of Margiela.
